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Not many people can say they got career inspiration in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show in the 1980s. But then, Steve Langley isn’t your typical 9-to-5 kind of guy. “I followed the Dead around for a decade,” says Langley, who grew up in Charlotte. “Some of the big activities in the parking lot before the shows were juggling and bubble-making.”

Ultimately, he turned both skills into successful careers. He started out as a juggler in a two-person act called The Fettucini Brothers. During the finale, the pair would toss flaming torches back and forth while idling on unicycles. Today, he heads up the Soap Bubble Circus, entertaining audiences with giant, rainbow-colored bubbles.

But perhaps Langley’s greatest claim to fame is the time he spent as the Paddle Ball King. In 2011, he set several paddle ball toys into motion at once — a blur of rebounding rubber balls tapping out a pocka-pocka-pocka rhythm — resulting in a Guinness World Record. And he owes it all to a High Point hosiery salesman.

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James Emory Gibson. Photography courtesy of High Point Historical Society, High Point, NC; The High Point Enterprise Negative Collection

James Emory Gibson was a successful salesman, but during the Great Depression, it became difficult to put food on the table for his growing family of five. One day, his daughter Josephine waltzed into the house with a promotional toy that her mom, Rozena, had purchased for her at an ice cream shop: a simple wooden paddle with a band connected to a rubber ball. Gibson was annoyed at the frivolous purchase during a time when money was tight. But after he saw his kids playing with it, his sales instincts took over. “I think I can make something out of this,” he told Rozena, according to the couple’s granddaughter Kay Snow.

Despite the risk, Rozena believed in her husband and ponied up her savings — $100 she’d received from a settlement related to a train accident. Seed money in hand, Gibson began manufacturing an improved version of the toy in his father-in-law’s carriage house, selling them out of the back of his Ford Model A. But he knew national distribution would be the key to success.

By the time Fli-Back was featured in a December 1950 article in The High Point Enterprise, its cowboy logo was world-famous. Photography courtesy of High Point Historical Society, High Point, NC; The High Point Enterprise Negative Collection

“He went to New York, and no one would see him,” Snow says of her grandfather’s first attempt to catch the eye of national chains like Woolworth’s, Kresge’s, and Macy’s. He returned home disappointed, but not defeated. When he spotted a red suit in the window of a men’s store in Asheboro, he bought it for $15 and declared he was going to wear it on his next trip to New York.

An early version of the Fli-Back featured a paddle-balling pachyderm. Other special editions promoted movies or soft drinks. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Rozena was horrified. “She said, ‘You can’t do that, Emory! You’ll embarrass us to death!’” Snow says. No one died when he wore the suit on his next trip to New York — in fact, his Fli-Back paddle toy was given new life. “He got in somewhere and got a big order,” Snow says. “[The buyer] called Woolworth’s and some other big stores and told them, ‘You need to see Mr. Gibson.’”

Doors that had been previously shut to the salesman were suddenly flung open at the sight of the red suit, and Fli-Back paddles were soon flying out of stores across the country. According to Snow, a family member came up with the Fli-Back name. But what about the logo of a cowboy bouncing his Fli-Back astride a bucking bronco? No one seems to know who the artist was or why that image was chosen. What is known is that Gibson tried out some other ideas, including an elephant playing with a Fli-Back. Snow owns one of these rare paddles, a glimpse into the creative process that ultimately yielded the iconic trademark image.

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By the late 1930s, the bronco-busting, ball-bouncing cowboy was a familiar sight in children’s hands across the country. Gibson was producing millions of Fli-Back paddles every year. He diversified into other toys, too — from balls and batons to balloons and skateboards to yo-yos and spinning tops. Before long, he was challenging the other man in the red suit for toy-making domination.

Gibson also turned out to be well-suited for his new role as toy-factory owner. When World War II caused a staffing shortage, he had the courage to do what others would not during the Jim Crow era: He hired African American women and paid them the same wage as his other employees.

A December 1950 article in The High Point Enterprise showed Fli-Back employees cutting out paddles and processing rubber. Photography courtesy of High Point Historical Society, High Point, NC; The High Point Enterprise Negative Collection

After learning that a local restaurant — the only one near the factory — was gouging his workers, Gibson had meals prepared for the entire workforce. “He got one of the ladies who was working there, and she and my mother would go to the grocery store every day and buy burgers and hot dogs and meat and vegetables,” Snow says. Lunch was sold to the workers at a fraction of what the restaurant had been charging.

Even as a young man, Gibson had never been afraid to do the right thing. He was in his late 20s when his father died, but the young man supported his family, paying for his two younger brothers to attend UNC Chapel Hill.

By the 1950s, the company also offered yo-yos, footballs, and more. Photography courtesy of High Point Historical Society, High Point, NC

Snow describes her grandfather with admiration: “He was extremely honest,” she says thoughtfully. “Driven. And innovative. He never gave up.” Before the Great Depression, Gibson had branched into real estate. “When the Depression came, he lost everything. But he paid his debts back with interest after he became successful.”

Gibson’s sales experience helped him capitalize on the paddle ball craze he’d helped create. He employed skywriters. He sent Fli-Back performers on publicity junkets. He held contests in which the winner received a new bike. In 1953, the 3-D movie House of Wax premiered — with a scene that made it appear as if a Fli-Back ball was shooting into the audience — and Gibson manufactured 10 million Fli-Back paddles promoting the film, turning the toy into a handheld billboard.

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Langley discovered the joys of the Fli-Back while touring with The Fettucini Brothers. He and his partner would goof around with the paddle, looking for ways to work it into their act. Eventually, Langley began posting paddle ball videos on YouTube. “Some random guy posted, ‘Hey, that’s cool, but I can do better,’” he says. “So we started going back and forth, challenging one another. He’d put up a video, then I’d put up a video.”

Steve Langley’s dexterity and coordination helped him set two paddle ball-related Guinness World Records — and earned him the title of Paddle Ball King. photograph by HUNTER BRADDY

The friendly competition turned Langley into a paddle ball pro. One thing led to another, and in 2011, he found himself on a nationwide television program in Milan, Italy, establishing the Guinness World Record for the number of paddle balls in use at once — seven. He helped set a second Guinness World Record, for most people controlling paddle balls, in Davidson in 2011, later reclaiming the record by orchestrating 443 paddle ballers at a middle school in Landrum, South Carolina.

The Paddle Ball King comes by his flair for promotion honestly. His father was NASCAR driver Elmo Langley. “He was this crazy, swashbuckling character, and I grew up in his shadow,” Langley says. “He was a traveling gypsy, and he was his own boss.” Langley realized early on that if he was going to make it as an entertainer, he was going to have to develop the same marketing and business skills as his dad. Although the former Dead Head and the rough-and-tumble NASCAR driver didn’t always see eye to eye, “he was proud that I was doing my own thing, living my own way.”

But all good things must come to an end. After being denied (on a technicality) a third Guinness World Record for the largest working paddle ball, Langley moved on from bouncing balls to blowing bubbles. He’s taken his Soap Bubble Circus to audiences across the country, including the White House for a Halloween event during the Obama administration.

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By the time Gibson died in 1968, Fli-Back employed hundreds and was being run by his son Walter. The company was eventually sold in 1972 to Ohio Art Company, makers of the Etch A Sketch. It was sold again in the ’80s, with manufacturing moving from High Point to Mississippi. Sadly, the original Fli-Back paddle is no longer produced.

But it might be due for a comeback. In 2019, the North Carolina Museum of History featured the Fli-Back in an exhibit highlighting popular toys of the baby boomer generation. In 2022, one of the old Fli-Back factory buildings was designated a Guilford County Historic Landmark. And recently, Langley vowed to take another run at the Guinness World Record for creating the largest working paddle ball toy. One can only hope that the iconic game that entertained millions will once again find its way into the hearts of a new generation. After all, if there’s any child’s toy that can bounce back, it’s got to be the Fli-Back.

More to Explore: Don’t miss our “Hidden History” video series, where we dive into topics ranging from Piedmont Punch to Lassie’s ride down Sliding Rock. To watch, visit ourstate.com/hiddenhistory.